Cyprus Emergency Research Articles

Technologies of Emergency: Cyprus at the Intersection of Decolonisation and the Cold War

This article analyses ‘technologies of emergency’ in colonial counterinsurgency campaigns, framed around the case of Cyprus. In the 1950s, the repeated use of the state of emergency created a continuum, connecting British colonies on three different continents in a single administrative network. Lessons learned in one location were applied in the next, causing the state of emergency to evolve into a blueprint for post-war counterinsurgency in colonial settings. We contend that the toolkit of emergency technologies was not limited to legal measures, arguing instead for a more capacious category. By examining the place of Cyprus in this network and the effect of this broader ‘toolkit’ on the ground, this article views the Cyprus Emergency as one of multiple decolonisation wars in the Cold War era. In doing so, it highlights the coloniality of the island, an aspect of Cypriot history which is often overlooked in favour of more regional frameworks.

Force structure and counterinsurgency outcome: the case of the Cyprus Emergency (1955-1959)

ABSTRACT This article examines the Cyprus Emergency (1955–1959) to test the force structure thesis. According to the thesis, armies that deploy more manpower per armored vehicle would succeed in counterinsurgency because they could win people’s trust, secure intelligence from civilians, and use force selectively. Using the congruence method of within-case analysis, I show that the causal process and logic of the force structure argument are not confirmed in the favorable case of Cyprus. Despite its preference for infantry and police units, the British garrison failed to win over the people and persuade civilians to share information about the insurgent; besides, Britain’s intelligence breakthroughs and selective violence did not result from the logic of the force structure thesis, nor did the conflict end as the argument would predict. Political conditions, instead, played a greater role. Ultimately, the case of Cyprus warns against the reassuring belief, inherent in the force structure thesis, that military organizational adjustments in favor of manpower can pave the way to victory against irregular opponents.

Ireland and the end of the British Empire: the republic and its role in the Cyprus emergency. By Helen O’Shea. Pp xviii+288. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015. £62.

Ireland and the end of the British Empire: the republic and its role in the Cyprus emergency. By Helen O’Shea. Pp xviii+288. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015. £62.

Toads and Informers: How the British Treated their Collaborators during the Cyprus Emergency, 1955–9

ABSTRACTDuring the Cyprus Emergency the British administration made considerable use of both Cypriot and Turkish collaborators as policemen and civil servants. Most were able to sink back into the safety of their own ethnic community after the Emergency, but some had become pariahs and had to look to the departing British for succour. They were the small group of Greek Cypriots who actively collaborated with the British against EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters), and the even smaller group of Turkish Cypriots who worked with them against the Turkish underground organisation, TMT. This article uses newly released archival materials to explore the history of these collaborators, asking questions about their recruitment, their actions, and the risks and dangers they faced. Evidence emerges as to how the British rewarded and subsequently treated these collaborators, how those who applied for asylum fared, and what happened to them once they arrived in Britain.

Failed Attempts to Reduce Inappropriate Laboratory Utilization in an Emergency Department Setting in Cyprus: Lessons Learned

BackgroundLaboratory test ordering is a significant part of the diagnosis definition and disease treatment monitoring process. Inappropriate laboratory test ordering wastes scarce resources, places unnecessary burden on the health care delivery system, and exposes patients to unnecessary discomfort. Inappropriate ordering is caused by many factors, such as lack of guidelines, defensive medicine, thoughtless ordering, and lack of awareness of costs incurred to the system. ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to assess two successive measures, which were introduced in a Cyprus emergency department (ED) for the purpose of synergistically reducing inappropriate laboratory ordering: the introduction of a copayment fee to reduce nonemergent visits, and the development of a Web-based protocol defining the tests emergency physicians could order. MethodsAn autoregressive integrated moving average model for interrupted time series analysis was constructed. Data include number and type of tests ordered, along with number of visits for a period of 4 years from an ED in Cyprus. ResultsCopayment fee and introduction of a revised Web-based protocol for a test ordering form did not reduce the number of ordered tests in the ED unit. Copayment fee alone resulted in a statistically significant reduction in ED visits. ConclusionsThe implementation of two consecutive measures resulted in an increase of ordered tests per patient. Laboratory ordering is a multidimensional process that is primarily supplier induced, therefore, all underlying possible causes must be scrutinized by health authorities. These include lack of guidelines, defensive medicine and thoughtless prescribing. To attain significant gains, an integrated approach must be implemented.

‘Always ready to explode into violence!’ Representing the Cyprus Emergency and decolonization in The High Bright Sun (1965)

Abstract This article examines the representation of Cyprus in post-imperial British popular culture with particular reference to the film The High Bright Sun (1965), a mainstream British production depicting the decline of British imperial authority during the ‘Cyprus Emergency’. The film is contextualized first in relation to contemporaneous cycles of British television dramas and novels representing Cyprus, and second in relation to ongoing political events as they intruded on the film’s production history. The article proceeds to examine the ways in which The High Bright Sun was marketed to audiences in Britain and its reception in the British press. It argues that while the marketing campaign attempted to detach the film from its immediate political context, British reviewers were eager to make unfavourable associations between events shown on-screen and the ongoing conflict in Cyprus.

Patient Management Symposium in Emergency Medicine at North Cyprus Emergency Medicine Days

The Patient Management Symposium in Emergency Medicine in North Cyprus Emergency Medicine Days was carried out between February 28 and March 1, 2014 at Lefkosa, TRNC. Fifteen academicians carried out the Emergency Medicine Patient Management Symposium with 17 presentations at 7 different panels. Besides physicians, nurses, paramedics working in the 112 emergency health care services, emergency services and in the other clinics of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus Ministry (TRNC) of Health, health professionals working in the emergency services and intensive care units of Near East University (NEU) hospital and other private facilities and NEU School of Medicine, Nursing Department of Faculty of Health Sciences and students of the Paramedic Program of Vocational School of Health and students of the other universities attended the symposium. The number of participants was 440, and it caught more attention than expected. Holding the organization of Patient Management in Emergency Medicine Symposium under the umbrella of Northern Cyprus Emergency Medicine Days has added strength and desire to the NEU School of Medicine Emergency Medicine Department and EPAT for other planned organizations. (JAEM 2014; 13: 219-20)

The British counter-insurgency in Cyprus

The Cyprus Emergency is often lumped together with Malaya and Kenya as an example of British counter-insurgency practice in the 1950s. Malaya and Kenya in particular are often used as models of how to succeed. The general perception is that these counter-insurgency campaigns, which are often connected with the strategy of ‘winning hearts and minds’, were highly successful,1 and have ‘become synonymous with the conduct of a successful counter-insurgency campaign’,2 in contrast with the methods employed by the French in Indo-China and Algeria, the Dutch in Indonesia, the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique, the Americans in Vietnam, and the Soviets in Afghanistan. However, Cyprus, which tends to be comparatively neglected and less studied, presents a far less rosy and more problematic picture of British counter-insurgency practices in the 1950s. The geography and politics of Malaya and Kenya make them unsuitable as a model for counter-insurgency operations in the very different situation in Cyprus between 1954 and 1959. Rather than the usual comparison with Malaya and Kenya, Cyprus should be seen in parallel not only with Palestine, Aden, and Northern Ireland but also with Portugal and Rhodesia.

Decolonization and Its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of the Colonial Empires (review)

Reviewed by: Decolonization and Its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of the Colonial Empires Charles C. Kolb Decolonization and Its Impact: A Comparative Approach to the End of the Colonial Empires. By Martin Shipway. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. 288 pp. $86.95 (cloth); $36.95 (paper). Martin Shipway is lecturer in French studies at Birkbeck College, University of London; the author of The Road to War: France and Vietnam, 1944–1947 (1996); and has published journal articles and book chapters on French colonial policy making and decolonization [End Page 160] in Indochina, sub-Saharan Africa, Algeria, and Madagascar. In addition he has written on colonial discourse, psychology, and on postcolonial memory. His current work broadens his prior geographical foci to include the decolonization of British, Dutch, and Belgian colonies in South and Southeast Asia and Africa in the two decades following World War II. In "Introduction: Decolonization in Comparative Perspective," Shipway considers the European colonial system and seven nations that broke ties: Vietnam (1945), Indonesia (1945), the Philippines (1946), Pakistan (1947), Indonesia (1949), South Africa (1910), and Hong Kong (1997). The initial chapter, "The Colonial State: Patterns of Rule, Habits of Mind," provides background on the colonial state, patterns of rule, and the "official mind." Chapter 2, "Colonial Politics before the Flood: Challenging the State, Imagining the Nation," focuses on the limits of colonial politics, moderate versus "mendicant" politics, the uses of tradition in colonial states ("thrones and dominions"), communism and nationalism, collaboration and resistance, Indian Nationalist politics to 1935, Vietnam in the 1930s, and blocked reform in Algeria. A subsequent essay, "The Impact of the Second World War and the 'First Wave' of Decolonization," provides case studies on Africa (Madagascar and Senegal), Southern Asia (Indochina, Burma, and Vietnam), the "endgame" of the Raj (India), and distinctions between dominion states (Ceylon and Burma). In "Imperial Designs and Nationalist Realities in Southeast Asia, 1945–1955," Shipway writes about the French Union, Indochina, Chinese and Muslim influences in Malaya, the Dutch "reconquest" of Indonesia, and the eight-year French and Viet Minh war a "front in the Cold War." Chapter 5, "Shifting Frameworks for Change: The Late Colonial State in Africa," covers the period 1944–1951 and emphasizes the French and Belgian "welfare" states, British reforms in East Africa, the politics of the Gold Coast and Nigeria (Muslims and Ashanti), the Brazzaville Conference of 1944, the Ivory Coast, and the Central African Federation. "The Late Colonial State at War: Insurgency, Emergency and Terror" characterizes food shortages and famine in India, North Vietnam, and parts of Africa, origins of wars (Malagasy Insurrection, Mau Mau, Algerian War, and Cyprus Emergency), as well as "dirty wars" and policies to win hearts and minds. In "Towards Self government: Patterns of Late Colonial African Politics, 1951–1957," Shipway writes about the Gold Coast, Nigeria, the Sudan, Cameroun, and Tanganyika to illustrate the end of assimilation in French Africa and British policies. Last, in "Wind of Change: Endgame in Colonial [End Page 161] Africa, 1958–1964," he examines French policies in Algeria and Sub Saharan Africa under de Gaulle, Algeria (1958–1962), and the demise of a "platonic ideal" in the Belgian Congo. In "Conclusion: The Impact of Decolonization," Shipway reviews the endgame of decolonization and the conclusions of a variety of historiographers and experts on the subject. He notes that World War II was central to decolonization but was "multi-layered and pluri-dimensional, with some devastating immediate consequences and others that took time to work themselves out" (p. 234) and that it was an "accelerator of imperial change" (p. 235). Extreme or eccentric experiments in decolonization had catastrophic consequences and were costly to both the colony and the colonizer. Shipway's book joins approximately 260 others published during the past two decades that most often deal with specific instances of decolonization since 1940 rather than with a comparative assessment. Prasenjit Duara's edited reader, Decolonization: Perspectives from Now and Then (2004), brings together cutting edge thinking by major historians of decolonization, and writings by leaders of decolonizing countries. The essays emphasize the perspectives of the former colonies rather than a Western analysis of decolonization. The selection of writings also focuses on imperialism and...

TORTURE

I am deeply conscious of the fact, as I consider the subject of torture, that I have led a very sheltered life. I have never been tortured. I have never seen anybody being tortured. Nor have I ever met anyone who has undergone this dreadful practice. But I cannot say that I have never met anyone who has had anything to do with it. The Cyprus emergency was at its height during my period of national service. My attempt to persuade the military authorities that my knowledge of classical Greek was a suitable qualification for me to be sent to the island to act as an interpreter was unsuccessful. I was sent instead to serve with an infantry battalion in the British Army of the Rhine in West Germany. I did not think so at the time as we endured one of the coldest winters in living memory in Nordrhein-Westphalia, but I was to discover later that this may well have been the better option. When I went up to university I met someone who had indeed been sent to Cyprus. He had acted as an interpreter when Greek Cypriot members of the Eoka organization were being interrogated. Conscious of the constraints of the Official Secrets Act, he never revealed to me the details of what was done to them during this process. But I had the distinct impression, as we talked, that he had been revolted by it and that things were done which were and would always remain a scar on his memory.

Policing and communal conflict: The Cyprus emergency, 1954–60

(1993). Policing and communal conflict: The Cyprus emergency, 1954–60. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History: Vol. 21, Emergencies and Disorder in the European Empires after 1945, pp. 177-207.

Obstetric Record of the Cyprus Emergency: July 1974 to July 1975

Obstetric Record of the Cyprus Emergency: July 1974 to July 1975